Does dress code affect productivity? (To be professional, you have to dress the part!)

If I were in charge of hiring employees and one individual showed up on a Monday dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, I wouldn’t bother looking at his résumé. I would send him out immediately because appearance says a lot about someone.

Thursday, September 12, 2013
Patrick Buchana

If I were in charge of hiring employees and one individual showed up on a Monday dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, I wouldn’t bother looking at his résumé. I would send him out immediately because appearance says a lot about someone. Formal attire has a level of professionalism that must be consistent. This attire may not necessarily affect ones productivity directly but it certainly plays a role in slowing things down.Dress code boils down to trust issues as well. If someone isn’t wise enough to care about the way he dresses at the office how can I trust him with the company’s documents and other important things? They say that an apple doesn’t fall far away from the tree so if he doesn’t look smart, how exactly will I know that his smartness resides only in his brain?There is a reason marketing agents, lawyers and CEOs dress up the way they do. It’s because they are the face of the companies they work for.  But this shouldn’t be left to only people holding such posts. Any good employee is a representative of their company everywhere they go, and no one is going to listen to someone dressed in ripped jeans and a t-shirt with meaningless words scribbled on it.If someone in a tie walked up to me and asked me to help him with something, I wouldn’t even think twice about giving him attention because he earns my respect just through his appearance. He doesn’t have to say a word even; his dress code speaks for him. Someone dressed shabbily would have to say at least 1000 words to get my attention. If there’s one thing that demands respect on any front, it’s dressing like a professional and actually acting like one.People that dress well are often served better at restaurants and other places. It’s not about being judged but let’s face it; the tattered jeans won’t garner any immediate respect other than drawing attention to yourself and being thrown out because they suspect that you are a thug!So you want to be taken seriously? Dress like a professional.